Nun Busted for Allegedly Embezzling Catholic College

Sister Marie Thornton, 62, has been charged with embezzling $1.2 million from Roman Catholic Iona College in Westchester County, New York. Federal authorities contend that the nun, who served as vice president of finance at Iona, had submitted fake invoices and used a college credit card for personal reasons, reports the Daily News.

For 10 years she got away with it, if there turns out to be an 'it.' Then in May 2009, Iona started questioning what Sister Marie Thornton might have been up to. First she was put on leave. Now, she faces criminal charges. In Manhattan criminal court, she pleaded not guilty and is out on bail.

If the nun is found guilty, she joins a growing list of miscreants who financed a cushy personal life through funds from Roman Catholic institutions. For example, across the border in Fairfield County, Connecticut, the late Roman Catholic priest Father Michael Jude Fay stole about $1.2 million from the collection basket at upper middle class parish St. John's in Darien. Father Fay died in prison.